A fair breeze sprang up with the sun, and the boat glided up stream for
many miles before a halt was called, in a bend where the wind railed
them. Here, as on previous occasions, a fire was lit, and the breakfast
prepared and eaten almost in silence, for Brazier's thoughts were far up
the river and away among the secret recesses of nature, where he hoped
to be soon gazing upon vegetation never yet seen by civilised man, while
Rob and Joe were just as thoughtful, though their ideas ran more upon
the wild beasts and lovely birds of this tropic land, into which as they
penetrated mile after mile it was to see something ever fresh and
attractive.
Shaddy, too, was very silent, and sat scanning the western shore more
and more attentively as the hours passed, and they were once more
gliding up stream, the wind serving again and again as they swept round
some bend.
The sun grew higher, and the heat more intense, the slightest movement
as they approached noon making a dew break out over Rob's brow; but the
warmth was forgotten in the beauty of the shore and the abundance of
life visible around.
But at last the heat produced such a sense of drowsiness that Rob turned
to Joe.
"I say, wouldn't an hour or two be nice under the shade of a tree?"
"Yes," said Brazier, who had overheard him. "We must have a rest now;
the sides of the boat are too hot to touch. Hullo! where are we going?"
he continued. "Why, he's steering straight for the western shore."
Brazier involuntarily stooped and took his gun from where it hung in
loops under the canvas awning, and then stood watching the dense wall of
verdure they were approaching till, as they drew nearer, their way was
through acres upon acres of lilies, whose wide-spreading leaves
literally covered the calm river with their dark green discs, dotted
here and there with great buds or dazzlingly white blossoms.
The boat cut its way through these, leaving a narrow canal of clear
water at first, in which fish began to leap as if they had been
disturbed; but before the boat had gone very far the leaves gradually
closed in, and no sign of its passage was left.
"I don't see where we are to land," said Brazier, as he stood in front
of the canvas cabin scanning the shore.
"No; there is no place," said Rob, as they glided out of the lily field
into clear water, the great wall of trees tangled together with creepers
being now about two hundred yards away.
"Go and ask. No; leave him alone," said Brazier, altering his mind.
"He'll take us into a suitable place, I daresay."
Just then Shaddy, from where he was steering, shouted to the men, who
lowered the sail at once; but the boat still glided on straight for the
shore.
"Why, he's going to run her head right into the bank," cried Rob, though
the said bank was rendered invisible by the curtain of pendent boughs
and vines which hung right down to the water.
"How beautiful!" exclaimed Brazier, as he gazed at clusters of snowy
blossoms draping one of the trees. "We must have some of those, Rob."
"I say," cried Joe, "what makes the boat keep on going?"
"Impetus given by the sail," replied Brazier. "But it couldn't have
kept on all this time," cried the lad, "and we're going faster."
"We do seem to be," said Brazier; "but it is only that we are in an
eddy. There always is one close in by the banks of a swift stream."
"But that goes upward while the stream goes down," cried Joe. "This is
going straight in toward the trees."
"Better sit down, every one," shouted Shaddy. "Lower that spar, my
lads," he added, in the _patois_ the men used.
Down went the mast in a sloping position, so that it rested against the
canvas cabin. But Rob hardly noticed this in the excitement of their
position. For there was no doubt about it: some invisible force had
apparently seized the boat, and was carrying it swiftly forward to dash
it upon the shore.
But that was not Brazier's view of the question. "The river is flooded
here and overrunning the bank," he cried. "Hi! Naylor! Do you see
where you're going?"
"Right, sir. Sit down."
But Brazier, who had risen, did not sit down, for he was quite startled,
expecting that the next moment the boat would be capsized, and that they
would all be left to the mercy of the reptiles and fish which haunted
the rapid waters.
"Hi!" he shouted again. "Naylor, are you mad?"
"No, sir, not yet," was the reply. "Better sit down. Mind your hat!"
For all through this the boat was gliding slowly but straight for the
curtain of leaves and flowers which hid the bank of the western side of
the river; and as the position seemed perilous to Rob, he saw with
astonishment that the four Indian boatmen lay calmly back furling up the
sail as if nothing was the matter, or else showing that they had perfect
faith in their leader and steersman, who was not likely to lead them
into danger.
What followed only took moments. They were out in the dazzling
sunshine, were rapidly, as it seemed, approaching the bank, and directly
after plunged right into the lovely curtain of leaves and flowers which
swept over them as they glided on over the surface of the swiftly
running clear black water, the sun entirely screened and all around them
a delicious twilight, with densely planted, tall, columnar trees
apparently rising out of the flood on either hand, while a rush and
splash here and there told that they were disturbing some of the
dwellers in these shades.
"What does this mean?" said Brazier, stooping to recover his hat which
had been swept off on to the canvas awning, and which he only just
recovered before it slipped into the stream.
There was no answer to the question as they watched, and then they saw
light before them, which rapidly brightened till they glided into
sunshine and found that they had passed through a second curtain of
leaves, and were in a little river of some hundred yards wide, with
lovely verdure on either side rising like some gigantic hedge to shut
them in; in fact, a miniature reproduction of the grand stream they had
so lately left.
"Why, Naylor," cried Brazier, "I thought you were going to run us ashore
or capsize us."
"Yes, sir, I know you did," was the reply.
"But where are we? What place is this?"
"This here's the river I wanted to bring you to, sir."
"But it does not run into the Paraguay, it runs out."
"Yes, sir, it do. It's a way it has. It's a curious place, as you'll
say before we've done."
"But it seems impossible. How can it run like this?"
"Dunno, sir. Natur' made it, not me. I've never been up it very far,
but it strikes me it's something to do with the big waterworks higher up
the big river."
"Waterworks! Why, surely--"
"Natur's waterworks, sir, not man's; the big falls many miles to the
north."
Rob and Joe exchanged glances.
"Strikes me as the river being very full here the bank give way once
upon a time, and this stream winds about till it gets close up to where
the falls come down."
"But water can't go up hill, man."
"No, sir, course not; but I thought that if it goes along some valley up
to the mountains where the falls come down, it would be an easy way of
getting to the foot of the high ground and striking the big river
again."
"Stop a moment: I have heard some talk of a great cascade up north."
"Yes, sir, where nobody's never been yet. Seemed to me as it was rather
in your way, and you might find some orchids up there as well as here."
"Of course, of course!" cried Brazier; the idea of being first in the
field with a great discovery making his pulses throb. "Tell me all
about it."
"Right, sir, when we've had something to eat. It's 'bout twelve
o'clock, and here's a shady place, so if you give the word we'll land
and cook a bit. Place looks noo, don't it, sir?"
"New, Naylor! I can never thank you enough."
"Don't try then, sir," said Shaddy, steering the boat in, and with the
help of the boatmen laying it ashore close to some huge trees. "Now we
shall have to make her fast, for if our boat gets loose the stream will
carry her where nobody will ever find her again."
"I can't understand it," said Brazier impatiently, as the Indians leaped
ashore, one to make a rope fast, the others to light a fire; "this
stream running out of the main river is contrary to nature, unless where
it divides at its mouths."
"Not it, sir; it's right enough. Right down south in the Parana the
river does it lots of times, for the waters there are like a big net all
over the land, and--I say, Mr Rob, sir, where's your gun? There's a
carpincho just yonder among them reeds. Try for it, sir; we can manage
with it for a bit o' roast and boiled."
Rob seized the piece, and Shaddy pointed out the spot where he was to
fire and hit the beast in the shoulder, but just then they were
interrupted by a hideous yell.